Saturday, November 07, 2009

On Sgt. Kimberley Munley

The police officer who brought down a gunman after he went on a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base was on the way to have her car repaired when she heard a report over a police radio that someone was shooting people in a center where soldiers are processed before they are deployed abroad, authorities said on Friday.

As she pulled up to the center, the officer, Kimberly Munley, spotted the gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, brandishing a pistol and chasing a wounded soldier outside the building, said Chuck Medley, the director of emergency services at the base.

Sergeant Munley bolted from her car and shot at Major Hasan. He turned toward her and began to fire. She ran toward him, continuing to fire, and both she and the gunmen went down with several bullet wounds, Mr. Medley said.

Whether Sergeant Munley was solely responsible for taking down Major Hassan or whether he was also hit by gunfire from another responder is still unclear, but she was the first to fire at him.

Sergeant Munley, who is 34, is an expert in firearms and a member of the SWAT team for the civilian police department on the base, officials said.

Such a courageous act saved lives.

Last night the following exchange took place on Eschaton comments threads:

this female MP was the first responder

What does her gender have to do with it??????Hecate, Runnymeade Conspirator | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 9:29 pm | #

Trolls will be trolls, you might mutter. But it's still worth pointing out that Sgt. Munley is a trained firearms expert, an experienced police officer and a SWAT team member, yet many still judge her first as a woman, and attribute to her their stereotypes about how women are.

I have thought about that a lot, starting with the phrase "throws like a girl." To throw in that particular manner has to do with not being trained to throw. Indeed, many such sexist comparison compare an untrained woman (in, say, fighting skills) with a trained man. This is faulty thinking in general but it is also extremely disrespectful of people (men or women) who ARE trained to act a certain way in emergencies.

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